By Kalena Reynolds | Reporter
In life, you have two choices: to live your truth or to suffer the consequences of not doing so. While this might seem a little straightforward, a majority of the people in the world don’t realize what living your truth means or the implications that come from not doing so.
Growing up, I was a curious child. I enjoyed asking questions — and lots of them. I would ask the doctor how she didn’t get nauseous at the sight of blood, ask the veterinarian how he didn’t cry when he saw an animal in pain and ask the lady who worked at the post office how a letter was able to get from the other side of the country to my hands in a matter of days.
As a result of these questions, it was not unusual for me to be asked, “Well, do you know what you want to be when you grow up?” And even though I did, I usually responded with a shoulder shrug and quickly redirected the question. It wasn’t that I was unsure of what I desired in life, but rather that I was embarrassed and, a lot of times, scared of what people’s reactions would be.
I was an only child, and growing up, both of my parents worked full time, so I ultimately ended up spending lots of time by myself trying to come up with forms of entertainment. I tried painting, baking, making clothes and more, but one thing always seemed to be lurking in the back of my mind: writing.
I spent a good portion of my time making up adventure stories about my dog exploring the world and finding endless amounts of snacks everywhere she went. Eventually, I graduated to preteen angst-filled journaling that consisted mainly of text abbreviations like “Omg, she seriously said that to me!” and “I can’t believe this is happening right now.”
As I grew older, my taste matured, and I developed a love of songwriting, fiction writing and writing anything that had to do with the lives of interesting people. Everything that was a thought in my mind was bound to be jotted down on paper, yet I told no one about the hidden love affair.
Fast forward to my senior year of high school, and I was met with a request. I knew I wanted to go to college, but I wasn’t quite sure I was brave enough to finally announce to the world that I wanted to study something that I enjoyed, like writing.
I spent the entire summer before my first year as a declared business major until the week before college, when I spontaneously emailed my adviser asking to change my degree plan to journalism. I worried about what people would say if they thought I was crazy for not studying business or being pre-law, but I was forced to face my truth and be honest with myself about what I wanted in life.
The fall semester of my first year finally rolled around, and something in me told me I was in the right place as I stepped foot into my first journalism class. I immediately fell in love. Not only was I writing regularly, but I was surrounded by classmates and professors who loved writing just as much as I did.
While this was a scary decision for me, if I had forced myself to study something that seemed more practical to the outside world, I would have been miserable, and that is the simple consequence of not living your truth. The fear of rejection by others for being your true self is scary, but rejecting yourself is even more frightening.
